


The New Agent

by mggforever



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Case Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-01-02 22:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggforever/pseuds/mggforever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Julia Jacques, a native New York with astonishing talent transfers over the BAU, replacing months after the death of Emily Prentiss. A shocking encounter on her first day, meeting her old "friend," Spencer Reid. Soon, she joins the rest of the team on a case where they travel to San Francisco to help unsolve a case</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Criminal Minds and it's characters, this is the property of CBS. This is solely for entertainment purpose only. No profit was made from this work

Three months have passed and it hasn’t been the same without Emily. Since JJ had unwillingly left her media liaison position at the BAU to become a member of the Department of Defense, the family felt incomplete. However a budding young Ashley Seaver gladly takes over as she abandons her previous occupation and puts the Washington field office aside. Although this still leaves Emily’s position available but even though the team might be grieving over her, they need someone to fill the spot nonetheless even if they oppose to the idea. The hunt for a new member of the BAU begins. 


	2. Morning hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new agent arrives at the BAU and is about to start her first case.

A very attractive brunette woman in her thirties enters the bullpen of the BAU, topped with a black blouse covered by blazer, her FBI badge hanging on her left side and she wears short length boots. As she walk past the desks of the agents, one of them, Derek Morgan who glues his eyes on her and couldn’t stop looking. She walks up the stairs and peers into Agent Hotchner’s office, knocking gently on the half-open door. 

“Come in,” Hotchner insists and she does, shutting the door behind her as she enters.

“Agent Hotchner?”

He pauses his writing momentarily to look up and makes eye contact with her. “You must be the new agent,” he says, sitting up, holding out his hand. “I’m Aaron Hotchner.”

“Hi. Julia Jacques.” She takes his hand, squeezing it firmly. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” he says. “I was just looking at your file.”

She doesn’t respond. “It’s quite outstanding,” he continues. “A PhD in Psychology from Harvard University and addition to that your remarkable FBI academy scores.” 

“Thank you, sir.” 

He stares at her intently, sizing her up. After a few moments he gets up to stare out the window of the bullpen, glancing to his watch. “It’s rather early and I suppose not everyone on the team is here but I’ll introduce you to those that are also get you situated here.” 

Julia smiles and Hotchner gives her a gesture, letting her go first and she leaves the room, and he follows her behind. They walk down the stairs where Julia see a familiar face who just enters the bullpen and Julia quickly recognizes him, nervously she bites her cheek. Hotchner and Julia walk up towards the two agents; one of them is a dark-skinned man, who looks to be in his late 30’s. He sports a clean shaven head and a goatee. He wears a V neck tshirt, and black khakis accompanied with black shoes. The other agent is a curvy woman also in her early 30’s. She has blond hair and wears glasses matching her black blazer with a pattern tube top dress underneath it. The man currently entering the bullpen is Spencer Reid, dressed in a patterned collar shirt with a tie topped with a cardigan and a leather satchel. He meets up with the other two fellow agents just in time for the introduction. From left to right, “These are Supervisory Special Agent Dr Spencer Reid, SSA Derek Morgan and Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia,” Hotchner introduces. “And this is Agent Julia Jacques, our newest member of the team.”

“Hi,” Julia said. She holds her hand out. “It’s very nice to meet you,” shaking their hands even Reid’s who is currently in awe.

After a moment of awkward silence, Hotch shows Julia to her desk which coincidentally happens to be located across from Reid’s. 

The desk is shaped like an L. It has a desktop computer, several letter trays for storage, a corded telephone, desk lamp and some office supplies like pencils, tape, stapler, hole puncher, a pad of sticky notes, etc. “If you need anything or have questions just ask,” Hotchner says and he begins stepping away but gets interrupted. 

“We have a case,” someone bellowed. Everyone turns around to see Ashley Seaver, the new media liaison of the BAU. She has lengthy blond hair who looks to be in her late 20’s. She wears a navy blue shirt and black denim jeans. Her hair brushes against the air as she hurries past the team and completely misses the new agent standing there but without any hesitation the team hastens behind Seaver where they enter the conference to take their seats around the round mahogany table. 

They wait for Seaver as she passes out a light brown folder to each person and just in time David Rossi enters the room. “Sorry I’m late,” he apologises. “I got stuck in traffic.” He explains as he is getting into his seat. 

“SSA David Rossi, this is SSA Julia Jacques.” Hotchner introduces.

“It is an honor, sir.” Julia responds smiling. 

Without any preamble, Ashley begins, “I got a call from Detective Dunham from the San Francisco Police Department who requested our help. There has been 5 connected murders that have occurred the last few weeks.” She explains, clicking the remote to show a crime scene photo of a man laying on his side on a gravel floor beside a silver car. 

“The first victim, Franklin Boulevard, age 32 was a security guard, working for a small bank until he was switching night shifts with another co-worker when he arrived at his car where someone stabbed him multiple times. He was pronounced dead on the scene. There was no witnesses to this crime.” 

“The first stab could have meant the unsub was trying to subdue the victim but when the victim defended himself, unsub got agitated and this could explain the overkill.” Morgan suggests. 

Seaver flips to the next slide showing another image of a different crime scene. “The latest victim, Shauna Hopkins was out with her friends to go see a movie after leaving there she walked home from there where she was shot with a .38 caliber. Her body was found by a park near her house. She was killed two days ago.” 

“How far apart are each crimes?” Hotchner asks. 

“First happened early June, two happened on the same week at the beginning of July, one two weeks after and finally the latest one.” 

“He’s escalating.” Morgan responds.

“Was there any witnesses to the crimes?” Reid asks. 

“No he killed all the victims at night, there were no witnesses.” Seaver answers. 

“The MO is different.” Julia says. “How are these crimes linked?”

“On each of the victim, this was found on their wrist,” Seaver said, flipping to the next slide which showed a tattoo of a upside down pentagram.

“Satanism?” Rossi comments. 

“Are these victims a part of a cult or something?” Julia asks. 

“Maybe the unsub killing these people and changing the MO could mean he’s trying to lead off the police so they won’t suspect him.” Reid suggests. “Or it could be simple as trying to find his mark or random opportunity killings.”

“Other then that there has to be more to these crimes than one tattoo,” 

“That’s where we come in, the San Francisco PD need all the help they can get.” Hotchner announces. “Wheels up in 30,” and he walks off, heading back to his office while the rest of the team disperses. 

The team returns back to their desks and they begin packing up for the trip. Penelope Garcia reappears with a wrapped mug in her hands and she standing next to Julia’s desk. “Hi,” Garcia said timidly. 

“Hello.” Julia smiling responds. 

“This is for you,” giving a mug to her. 

“Wow!” Julia exclaims, accepting the gift. “That’s really sweet of you. Thank you.” 

“I’d should get back to work,” Garcia said. “Maybe we could have brunch or something when you get back?”

“Sure,” Julia answers. 

“Safe travels, mon ami,” Garcia responds as she leaves.

Julia grabs her bag and pulls her desk drawer opens as she scrounges for things that she didn’t need. Accidently, she drops her bag on the floor. Noticing this Reid places his mug of the coffee on her desk as he lends a hand. As he is helping her, their hands touch and he retaliates. “I’m sorry,” He says softly. 

They finish cleaning up, their silence only broken when Julia mumbles a quiet thank you. Reid picks up his coffee mug and he smiles at her, noticing a ring necklace that she is wearing although he say anything because he didn’t want to seem nosy so he walks off, heading back to his desk which happens to be directly across from her’s. 

Time begins to pass, everyone does their own thing and are getting ready. When it hits 10am, Hotch comes down the stairs and it’s the cue to leave. They follow behind Hotch as they enter to the elevator, the door closes and it heads downwards towards the ground floor. 

There are two cars that are waiting in the lot. Everyone goes to grab their luggage from their cars and they carry it to the cars where Morgan stands to kindly helps load the luggage into. As soon as the luggage is packed, they get into the cars. Morgan is behind the wheel and Hotch the other. Rossi is riding with Hotch while Ashley, Reid and Julia are riding in the back. 

They each turn the engine on and Hotch’s car leaves first while Morgan’s car follows behind, heading to the nearby airport that is only ten minutes away as the jet awaits for them.


	3. Away We Go

“Man is the only creature that kills to kill," - Peter Bernardone from Hannibal

 

As the team turns the last corner they see a Gulfstream jet is standing on the taxiway with the door open. Hotch and Morgan pull up beside the jet and soon they are out of their vehicles, heading inside.

The interior of the jet is very spacious, the first thing that you’ll see is the small kitchenette and turning left, there are 14 seats and the bathroom is in the back.

Everyone arranges themselves into a seat, buckling up. Rossi, Morgan, Ashley and Reid sit together while Hotch sits behind them and Julia sits away from them. They sit around for a few minutes just waiting for the crew to load their luggage after that is done. The jet door slowly closes and the pilot announces, “We’re ready for take off.”

The jet propels down the runway, ascending into the sky until you could no longer see the ground, reaching it’s cruising altitude where the pilot announces that it’s safe to unbuckle their seatbelts.

The flight to San Francisco is going to be 5 hours long and everyone sit in their seats doing their own thing: Hotch and Seaver are reviewing the case file again. Morgan has his headphones on listening to Al Green. Julia curls up in her seat reading, “A Game Of Thrones,” by George R.R Martin and Reid too is reading a book, “Great Expectations,” by Charles Dickens. Rossi sits in his seat with his eye closed just relaxing.

Hour one

Morgan takes off his headphone, pulling a deck of cards and starts a game with Reid, Seaver and Hotch to play. “Hey Julia,” he calls out. “You want to play?”

“No,” she answers. “But thanks for the offer though.”

“You sure?” Reid asks “If Morgan loses he has to take ballroom dancing lessons at the retirement home.”

Julia laughs at that. “Thanks but i’m good. Honestly.”

The sheer excitement coming from the game makes Julia want to play but she is near the end of her book so she decides to try and finish it.

Hour two

They stop playing cards, returning to do their own thing and the jet remains quiet. Julia stomach starts growling hungrily so she decides to get out of her seat to go look for something nice to eat. She heads to the gallery, opening and closing every cabinet for some food. There isn’t much for her grabbing a few snacks and pouring herself a cup of earl grey tea, carrying the stuff back to her seat she sees  
Spencer coming out of the washroom. He notices her and they make eye contact with each other, he gives her a warm smile which she returns. Back in her own seat, she sits down and stares longingly outside.

5 hours

It’s near the end of the plane ride just less than an hour left and it is time to start another discussion about the case.

Hotchner has the floor.

“Let’s talk about what they all have in common. Each victim is between their late 20’s to mid 30’s and they each have the same tattoo on their wrist.”

“The tattoo is the only connection between them.” Morgan answers.

“We can get Garcia to dig deeper into victimology,” Hotchner said, “If she hasn’t already.”

“All victims were killed with various MO and in different parts of the city,” Rossi comments.

“Which suggests the unsub is mobile.” Julia points out.

“Only 2 of the 5 victims have defensive wounds and no signs of mutations,” Reid says.

“And the unsub crosses gender lines so no sexual component in these crimes,” Morgan adds.

Rossi cuts in: “That we know of.”

“Okay once we land, Reid and I’ll go to the San Francisco PD to set up, Morgan and Jacques will visit the latest crime scene and Dave and Seaver go to the Coroner’s,” Hotch says, and with that the briefing ends. The others goes back to their seats, relaxing because they know that there wouldn’t be time after they land.

Not long after their briefing, the pilot announces over the intercom, “Ladies and gentleman, this is your pilot speaking. We are about to make our descent. I would like to ask all passengers to fasten your seatbelts. We will be landing shortly.”

The plane swiftly starts it's decent out of the sky. About 30 bumpy minutes later the wheels pull out underneath as it touches the runway, it stumbles making several screeching sounds eventually coming to a complete stop.

The crew unbuckles their seat belts, heading outside down the staircase where we see two black Tahoe cars waiting for them and one unmarked San Francisco police car with a man in his early 40’s standing on the asphalt beside it. The man wears a casual suit with his badge and gun attach to his belt. He introduces as Detective Dunham, and we all greet each other, shaking his hand. “Thank you for coming. We can really use some of your help. I really appreciate this,” he said.

“No problem,” Hotchner replies. “Agents Jacques and Morgan will be heading to the crime scene, Agents Seaver and Rossi will be heading over to the Coroner’s as for myself and Agent Reid we will be heading over to the station to set up.”

“I’ll take you to the office and help you out.” He said. “If that’s alright with you.”

Hotchner approves and they follow the Detective to the cars, where they get in. In one car, Morgan is once again driving and Julia rides in the front with him, and the other car, Rossi is driving with Seaver in the front while Hotch and Reid rides with Detective Dunham. They all follow Detective Dunham out of the airport but going into different directions.


	4. The Crime Scene

There is crime scene tape surrounding the park to a certain extent and several pedestrian’s stop wondering what the fuss is about but uniformed officers are placed around the perimeter, preventing any disturbance. Morgan pulls up, parking the car near where several police cars and a crime scene van are. Soon enough he and Julia are out of their vehicle, walking towards the crime scene where a uniformed officer in his 50’s stops them. “FBI,” they announce, pulling their identification out to show him. 

“Right this way,” he responds and pulls the crime scene tape over their heads, leading them inside where they meet another man. He looks to be in his 30’s, he wears a suit who’s probably a detective or something. 

“FBI?” He wonders as they get closer. 

Morgan nods. “I’m Detective Harrington,” he introduces. “Detective Dunham’s partner.” 

“I’m Supervisory Agent Derek Morgan,” he replies. “And this is SSA Julia Jacques.”

“Hi,” Julia said, smiling and begins to walk around the area where the victim was found, examining it as she went.

“The victim, Shauna Hopkins was killed late at night and it would have been pretty dark even if there was pedestrians that passed by or something, they probably wouldn’t have seen the unsub.” Julia explains. 

“Did you guys canvass the area?” Morgan wonders.

“We have sent out some officers out around the neighbourhood but they didn’t a lot since it was dark but some nearby said they heard a gunshot although they were unable to pinpoint where it came from. However, one of my officers were able to find a surveillance footage from the nearby shops that captured the murder.” Harrington replies.

“Where’s the footage now?” Morgan asks. 

“It’s at the station.” Harrington answers. “You can look over it later.”

Morgan nods. “Our unsub used a gun, right,” Julia said, crouching down beside the blood. “You see over there,” pointing to an area of small blood splatter. “High blood velocity of the blood splatter caused by a gunshot,” and this would have been approximately where he was standing when he shot her. 

“No defensive wounds and no indication that the body was moved so we are certain there wasn’t any secondary location of where he could have killed her.” Morgan says. 

“Surely, there’s other places to kill someone but why did he choose here?” Harrington asks. 

“We don’t know,” Morgan answers.

Julia changes the subject. “But we can assume that the unsub either stalked the victim or the kill was opportunistic.”

“This seems more of an opportunity kill,” Harrington comments. “I mean if he had stalked her then he wouldn’t have done this so openly.”

“But like you said before.” Julia responds. “Why did he kill her? Also what’s the motive.”

“That’s the part we still have to figure out,” Morgan says. “We should probably head over to the station since we don’t really have much left to go on about also see what the others have found out.”

They walk out of the crime scene where they head over to the car and get inside; the seating arrangement remains the same from the start.


	5. Coroner's

Rossi and Seaver arrive at the San Francisco General Hospital and were heading down into the last floor there, meeting the ME in an office. He’s revealed to be a man in his late forties with greying hair, wearing white lab coat.

“Hello,” he greets. “I’m Edward Mulligan. You must be the FBI.” 

Rossi introduces himself, “and this is Special Agent Ashley Seaver,” he adds. 

“Nice to meet you but I don’t know what I can tell you that I haven’t already written in the reports.”

“We just want to see the bodies ourselves and see if you might have missed something in the exam or something. If you understand,” Rossi explains. 

“Yes, of course. Feel free and if you won’t mind following me.” 

He takes them into the morgue where they see one stainless steel autopsy tables where it’s clear that there is a body underneath the white covering. Rossi and Seaver follow the ME to the autopsy table and stand around it as they watch Mulligan pulling down the sheet to the top a dead woman’s breasts. 

“This is Shauna Hopkins.”

“The latest victim,” Rossi comments. 

“COD is a gunshot a gunshot wound to the head from a caliber weapon causing instantaneous death.” 

“Did you do a tox screen on each of the victims?” Seaver wonders.

“Yes but no drugs were in their systems.”

“And there is no sexual assault, right?” Rossi confirms.

“No bodily fluids were found on any of the victims.”

“But there are different causes of death for each victims but 1 of the 5 victims have defensive wounds.” Rossi says. 

Mulligans nods. “Follow me,” he says, taking the white sheet to cover the victim head and shifts over to the mortuary fridges where Seaver and Rossi follow him behind. 

Mulligan pulls one of the chambers open, revealing a woman in her early thirties. ‘This is Martha Jennings, the third victim.” 

Seaver looks down at her looking serene with her eyes closed, noticing there is a ligature mark around her neck.

“Her cause of death was asphyxiation due to ligature strangulation,” Mulligan said. “The first victim is the only victim who has defensive wounds although in this case, the victim managed to scratch her assailant's skin and we found partial skin cells under her fingernail.”

“Did you get anything?” 

“The local detectives are running it for analysis and I assume they probably have a result by now.” 

Rossi understandably nods. 

He continues, “Next we have is the first victim, Franklin Boulevard, was the only victim who has defensive wounds but I am afraid I can’t show you the body because it has been cremated by the family. However, I can tell you the cause of death was massive hemorrhaging from a knife and there were wounds on the hands and forearms.”

“He tried to block the knife,” Seaver comments. 

“Although that didn’t do him any good.” Rossi says. “I think we should get back to the station and see what the others have,

“I’m sorry if I couldn’t be more of help,” Mulligan said. 

“No, it’s all right,” Rossi responds. “I think we are good for now. We appreciate your help.”

Mulligan nods and the two exit the room, heading over to the station.


	6. Evening

Agent Hotchner sits in the conference room looking through files hoping lunch would be served soon. Detective Duhman figures that his guest are probably hungry so he goes out and gets some food for them. Hotchner thanks him for his generosity. As the afternoon slowly drifts towards evening, the rest of the team is expected to be back soon.

Hotch is the only one in the room but not long Detective Dunham returns with 3 bags of food from In-N-Out Burger and he could smell aroma coming from it, it made his stomach growl hungrily knowingly he hasn’t eaten since when he left Virginia.

After the arrival of Detective Dunham. Hotch hears Morgan’s cocky voice coming around the corner and soon he arrives with Julia straight behind him. Hotch greets them and introduces them to Detective Dunham who welcomes them with a warm handshake and some food.

“Where’s Reid?” Morgan asks as he takes a burger from the bag.

“He went out,” Hotchner answers. “He said quote - I’d rather get something else to eat then something from a fast food restaurant.”

“Harsh,” Morgan comments and proceeds to eat his burger.

“Well I guess he’s not the only one,” Julia says, already one foot out the door.

“Maybe I should get Chinese food next time?” Dunham wonders.

“Let’s make sure there isn’t a next time,” Hotchner roughly says.

Julia leaves, leaving the boys alone together.

 

\- - -

 

It’s past 3pm and the streets of San Francisco are relatively busy with people who are going in different directions and going to different places for different reasons among them Julia stands in the middle of the sidewalks looking left to right to figure out which direction she is going to go. As she tries to decide, behind her lays the police department where police officers coming and going. She knew the place has to be nearby so she takes a gamble going northeast, hoping to find something that is suitable for her taste. She walks through several different blocks, crossing busy intersections and finally something draws her attention. It is a food truck, where she’s from there’s countless numbers of them all over the streets, it was unavoidable. The food truck is called, “Roadhouse” it has a stainless steel window counter about eye level. The menu is on the side of the truck, listing from: hot dogs to burgers to tacos to french fries to gyros to drinks.  
It has a relatively nice line so Julia assumes it good and walks over to join it as she waits she is thinking what to get when she reach the front. The server asks, “What can I get you miss?”

“I’ll have one veggie burger, a medium fries and a can of Sprite.”

Julia watches him punch in several buttons on the cash machine when finished, he says, “That comes to a total of $7.29.”

She takes out a 10 dollar bill from her pants pocket, handing it to the employee where he enters the total on the cash machine and the cash drawer pops open, giving the change to her.

“It’s be right with you.”

Julia nods and steps over to the side as she waits for her food to prepare and not long, an employee comes to the counter saying, “One veggie burger and a medium fries.”

She signals him over with her hand, getting his attention and he hands her, her food. “There you go, miss. Have a nice day.”

Julia takes the food from his hand and replies, “Thanks, you too.”

He acknowledges her with a smile and she walks away heading back to the police station.

On Morris Street, Julia stands at the corner of the intersection waiting for the pedestrian light to turn then she hears someone caliing out her name and she turns to see who it is and it’s Reid, who is standing across the street from her, waving his one hand in the air while the other is clearly holding something which surprisingly wasn’t a cup of coffee but presumably it is his lunch he has in his hand.

Julia lights turn first but however, she waits for him to cross and the two meet up. “Hi,” he smiling says.

Julia acknowledge his presences with a smile and asks, “Where’d you go?”

“There’s a an Indian place not far from here and I got myself a shawarma. What about you?”

“Ooo nice and I went to this food truck where I got a veggie burger, french fries and a pop. By the way you should give me a bite of your shawarma.”

“What no,” Reid shrieks. “I’m hungry.”

“Please,” Julia begs pulling a puppy eye look on him.

Reid gives in but there was a catch to it, Julia has to give him some of her fries. “I’ll give you the rest of it when I’m done.”

As the two are approaching the PD soon just approximately one block away from it. Julia says, “You should give me that bite of your shawarma right now.”

“Wait now?”

“In the eyes of our colleagues, we theoretically just met and if they see us like being close, it’s weird and will probably bring up questions.”

Reid shrugs but doesn’t reply. They arrive back at the police department where they stop at the flagpole, standing underneath it. Reid open the styrofoam meal box revealing the delicious looking shawarma. Julia takes the shawarma in one hand, taking a relatively large bite in size and eats it, groaning in delight. “It’s so good. Try it,” and he did, agreeing with her that it is delicious.

“Now you owe me some fries,” he responses.

“What if I don’t give you any?”

“I’ll hunt you down.”

“How? You don’t even have my number.”

“Give me your phone then.”

Julia complies, heading over her phone to him. When Reid turns her phone on, he sees her screensaver which was a picture of her and a guy together, looking close and his heart sank because he knew she is probably in a relationship and he had no chance at her. As Reid tries to navigate through her phone, looking for her contacts and when he did, he enters his phone and number into it, saving it just seconds later her phone goes off. On the caller ID, it says the person calling is named Walter. Reid presumed it is the guy in her screensaver although he didn’t ask. He notifies Julia that someone is calling her. She hands Reid her lunch and tells him, “I’ll meet you inside.”

He knows that she doesn’t want him to be around so he did not questioning her. Julia takes the call. “Hey,” Walter says. “How’s your first day?”

Before she answers, she sees a black SUV pulling to the curb from where she is standing, it’s Rossi and Ashley. Julia waves to them and she watches them entering the station. “We’re in San Francisco for a case right now and it’s going great aside from the not eating lunch until lunch part.”

“Damn, we are having Chinese at the office right now and I might have to pull an all nighter on this case.”

In the background, Julia hears someone knocking on the door says, “Hey boss. We’ve got a lead.”

“I’ll be there just give me a minute,” Walter tells him.

“Busy? Julia wonders. “It’s not easy being chief, eh.”

“It has it moments. Message me when you get back to Washington DC, okay.”

“Okay, I will. Bye.”

“Bye,” Walter replies, hanging up and Julia heads into the station where she joins the rest of her colleagues.

 

\- - -

 

 Back in the conference room, the team of profilers along with the two detectives have spread themselves around as they enjoy lunch, conversing with each other and shortly, Julia joins them.

 

\- - - 

 

As lunch comes to an end, Hotchner assigns the rest of the team excluding Seaver to visit major tattoo parlors in and around where the victim’s live to see if anything comes up.

Next to the passenger side, Julia sits up front with Morgan, as they drive through Mission District on the way to a tattoo parlor called Black and Red. As they roll up against the curb and soon out of their vehicle.

 

The exterior of the shop reveals a neon light hanging on the window saying, “tattoos and piercing.” Morgan and Julia walks into the shady looking shop. The first thing they see is a large counter desk and behind it is the area where they do tattoos, there are a few customers who are getting it done. Near the front of the shop, there is a small red leather couch and 2 arm chairs where they are accompanied by a coffee table that has some magazines on top.

An employee in the back, notices the two standing there and he yells, “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

They wait awkwardly. “Ever get a tattoo before,” Morgan curiously asks.

“Yeah, I do, just one. What about you?”

“I have plenty but mostly they are on my back and arms.”

The employee comes up the counter and he looks to be in his early thirties with a shaved head. “What can I get for you two,” he asks.

“We’re with the FBI,” Morgan says, taking out his credentials.

“Oh,” the employee responds, sounding shocked but unconcerned of suspicion. “What can I do for you.”

“We are just hoping you can help us with some questions,” Morgan tells him. He understands. “Have any of your customers ever requested a tattoo inverted pentagram?”

“Yes but rarely.”

“Have any of those infrequent customers ask for it to be inked on their left wrist,” Julia asks.

“No not that I know of”

“Okay then. Thank you for your cooperation,” Morgan says.

They make their way back into their vehicle, where they head off to visit another tattoo parlor, hoping to receive some helping information.

 

\- - - 

 

In an SUV few miles away, doing the same thing as Morgan and Julia, Rossi and Reid enters their 5th tattoo parlor visit, asking the same questions they asked before.

“Hi. We’re with the FBI,” Rossi says, holding up his credentials to the employee. “You aren’t in trouble or anything. We are just hoping you can help us with a few questions that could help us with a case we are working on right now.

He understandably nods. “Have any of your customers requested an inverted tattoo specifically on their left wrist?”

“Yes.”

“Do you recognize any of these people,” Reid asks, taking out some pictures from his satchel.

“No but I recognize this one,” he says, tapping his index finger on the picture. “From the news, I think.”

“So you’ve seen other people who got a tattoo like this,” Rossi wonders, pulling out a picture of the tattoo.

“U-uh yeah maybe once or twice. Not a lot of people get these things tattooed, you know.”

“Do you remember what they look like? Young? Old? White? Black? Male? Female?”

“It was a while ago but like this guy came in with his girlfriend almost near closing time. The girl was drunk and the guy wanted a tattoo, he didn’t look too have been drinking too much but I couldn’t risk it so I turned him around. He came back a few days later.”

“Do you recall a name or remember what he looks like?”

“Nah.”

“Do you remember if he paid in cash or with a credit card?”

“We mainly use cash here but I think the girl’s name was like Christie or Christina. I don’t know, some form of Christ. I think.”

“If you saw them again would you be able to pin point them out,” Reid asks.

“Probably man.”

“Okay. Thank you. You’ve been much help.”

The two leave the shop, heading towards their vehicle and as before Rossi takes the wheel while Reid sits next to him. As they drive off, Reid says, “I’ve been thinking, if we are hitting the major tattoo parlors in the city, the statistics prove to us that not a lot of people who get those sort tattoos.”

“Agreed and also we still need to figure out if these people are also being targeted.”

 

 - - - 

 

The rest of the team are out for a long period of time and Hotchner texts to to head back to the station. As each of them drive back, the afternoon slowly drifts into evening.

The BAU team and the 2 local detectives have a tentative preliminary discussion on this case. Almost near 6pm, they are let go early for dinner.

 

 - - -

 

The BAU team stands in front of their vehicles debating whether to get in or not. “Where are we eating?” Morgan wonders.

Everyone starts throwing ideas around from Olive Garden to T.G.I Friday’s. Reid jumps in, raising his voice a little so everyone can hear, “I was looking up of places to eat for dinner and there’s a thai restaurant not far from here, if any of you guys are interested.”

“I am,” Julia shouts. “What about you guys?”

The team still feeling indecisive. “If you know where you are going,” Hotch pauses, throwing the car key at Reid, catching it, “Go. We’ll figure something out… hopefully.”

Reid nods. Julia and Reid hop into the vehicle, where Reid takes the wheel which is very rarely because his colleagues don’t trust him with driving.

They arrive at the restaurant not long as Reid said. The restaurant is located on a particular busy street and has a very modern exterior design, it is a very upscale restaurant something Reid probably didn’t expected. The two went inside, where they are greeted by a young female waitress. “Good evening, Welcome to All Thai. How many of you are there?

“A table for two.”

“Follow me, please.”

She guides them across the restaurant, where they are seated. “Here are your menus,” she says, placing it on the table. “Today’s special is tofu green curry. And what can I get you to drink?”

“I would like to have some water.”

“And for you, sir?”

“Water would be fine.”

“Okay. I'll be back with your drinks,” she says, leaving.

Spencer reaches for a menu and begins looking at it and Julia did the same. Given a few minutes to read the menu, Julia has an idea what she is planning to get it and she wonders if Reid feels the same. “What are you getting?”

“I don’t know. They all look good,” he admits.

“Pad thai is good,” Julia suggests. “I had it before.”

The waitress comes back to their table, pouring water into their glasses and afterwards she wonders, “Are you guys ready to order?”

“Could you give us a few more minutes?”

“Sure,” she responds understandably, and she leaves.

Julia looks up at Spencer, face looking tense still unsure what to get, he takes a deep breath and exhales it. “I think I might just get the pad thai you suggested, just give it a shot and if I don’t like it, I’ll blame you.”

“Okay,” she responds chuckling softly. “And you aren’t getting anything else, no appetizers or anything?”

“That means I have to choose again and I couldn’t even decide what to get for the main course.”

“I’m getting fried tofu for my appetizer maybe you can share a bit with me so you don’t have to choose unless if you dislike tofu or something. I don’t know, it’s up to you to decide.”

Reid shrugs. “It doesn’t matter and what are you getting?”

“Yellow curry,” she says and seconds later, the waitress comes back ready to take their orders. “Are you ready to order?”

“Yes,” Julia says.

“So what would you guys like?”

“I’ll have fried tofu for my appetizer and yellow curry for the main course.”

“And you, sir?”

“Just one pad thai.”

“Okay. I’ll take your menus,” the waitress says, taking the menus away and exits.

“We never really got to talk much today but how have you’ve been lately since we haven’t talked in years.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I went to Europe recently”

Reid cuts in, “which places?”

“Berlin, Brussels and Amsterdam. Ever been?”

“I never really left the country,” he embarrassingly admits.

“What no way,” Julia exclaims. “Are you serious?!”

“Yeah… well unless if you count going to places for the BAU then I have otherwise for personal use, I really haven’t.”

“You seriously need to get out more often, there’s so much to see. You’ll have lots of fun, I can guarantee,” she says. “I hear Budapest is nice.”

“I’ll put that on the list of places that I should visit and hopefully soon I can go on vacation,” Reid says.

“Since I last saw you, you were doing a PhD in mathematics. I don’t think you stopped there so what have you achieved since then?”

“PhD in engineering, chemistry and mathematics along with that BA’s in psychology, sociology and philosophy, that I recently finished.”

“That is such a long list, and yet you are an FBI agent.”

“Same goes for you. I mean since your family are composed of doctors so you were expected to be one but yet you are here.”

Julia laughs then jokes, “maybe because I’m a rebel.”

“Oh, speaking of which how’s your family doing?”

“Well I actually haven’t seen or talk to them for awhile but I think they are doing fine, like always.”

“What about you? How’s your mom?”

“Same here, I haven’t seen or talked to her but I write her letters frequently though to let her know how I’m doing.”

“Aw that’s really sweet of you. She must be really proud of you, joining the FBI and all.”

“Yeah and we both know your’s would be too.”

Reid shortly apologizes to her realizing it was probably a bad thing to say but she brushes it off, telling him it’s alright. “Anyways,” Julia continues. “Surely joining the FBI seems like an achievement but has your mother convinced you out of it. I know when I told my grandmother about it, she despised the idea, she said it was too dangerous and was afraid that I would get hurt.”

“She wasn’t really bothered by it, she was pleased because I was helping people and she said that’s what I do best and that it was a good decision.”

“And you don’t regret making this decision.”

“Well aside from not getting paid enough,” Reid jokes. “I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

“I always thought you would be perfect for a professor or something, I don’t know.”

“Me? A professor,” Reid scoffs. “Ahhhhh, I don’t know, it just never seems to go well for me. I always seem to embarrass myself somehow.”

“Like what,” Julia wonders. “It can’t be that bad.”

“There was one time that I went to do a college recruitment seminar with Rossi and one student asked us what we studied. I told them the PhD’s and BA’s I had at that time also that I was currently completing a BA in philosophy so I decided to tell them a joke.”

“What was the joke?”

“How many existentialists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Then when I told them the answer, the entire room got quiet… no one laughed, I guess no one understood it.”

“Aw, that’s tragic!”

“Then another time I was at a college for a case. I was with Hotch, trying to get some information about the case and so he thought the bright idea to have me to talk to them because I was around their age and when I did: the first thing I did was introduce myself and I just got nervous, then started to ramble about how the BAU used to be called the BSU before Hotch cut me off. I don’t know, I always seem to embarrass myself or either end up rambling about pointless things.”

“Well that makes you, you though you just rambling about things,” Julia says and just when Reid is about to respond the waitress interrupts them.

“Here is your fried tofu served with sweet chili sauce,” she says, placing the dish onto their table and retreats afterwards.

Reid glances at the food and wonders, “Am I allowed to double dip?”

“We could just pour the sauce,” Julia responds. “I mean I don’t have a problem with that unless if you do.”

“No, that’s totally fine with me,” Julia says, reaching for the sauce just as Reid is about to but quickly retrieves his hand and allows her to do it.

“So let’s dig in,” Julia excitedly says, taking a piece onto her plate and takes a bite out of it without realizing that Reid was watching her.

She looks up at him and quickly covering a hand over her mouth. “Are you watching me eat,” she asks while speaking with a mouth full. “oh my god, don’t do that! Go eat your food,” she exclaims, brushing him off with her other hand.

Reid does as he is told and takes a bite of the tofu. Julia looks at him and she says, “does it bother you?”

“No, it doesn’t,” he lyingly responds.

As the two continue eating their appetizers, few minutes later the waitress comes back delivering their main dish. “One pad thai, for you sir,” she says, placing it in front of Reid. “and one yellow curry for you, miss,” she continues and carefully places the plate in front of Julia. “Enjoy your meal.”

Just as Reid is about to start his main course, Julia stops him when she sees him grabbing a fork.“What are you doing,” she asks.

“What do you mean, what am I doing?”

“You are suppose to eat pad thai with chopsticks.”

“There’s no rules saying that I can’t use a fork.”

“Use chopsticks,” Julia pleads.

“I can’t use chopsticks,” Reid admits. “It’s like fetching food with a pair of number 2 pencils. If I did use chopsticks it would probably take me like an hour trying to finish this dish.”

“Okay, fine,” Julia responds, giving in.

“Are you seeing anyone,” Reid asks and takes a fork full of noodles.

“Uh why?”

“I’m just curious.”

“No, I’m not. If that was the answer you were hoping for.”

“What, no way,” Reid exclaims and takes another bite. “Are you serious?

“Yeah, I am. I haven’t been in a long term relationship for awhile now.”

“Why? If you don’t mind asking.”

“Well, do you want the short version or long one?

“It doesn’t matter,” Reid responds, unsure where this might lead to.

“I was in a relationship with a guy for a long time, engaged but then he died.”

Reid’s eyes widen open, eyebrows high and felt repulsive for asking. “Oh god, I’m really sorry for your loss,” he responds. “I didn’t know.”

“No, it’s fine,” Julia nervously laughs.

A short silence falls afterwards, Reid unsure what to say next. “Anyways,” Julia continues. “What about you?”

“Should we really be talking about relationships? I mean--”

Julia cuts in, “No it’s fine.”

“U-uh okay. Well I’m not seeing anyone either, generally not good with girls even when girls are interested in me, I always end up pushing them away with my rambles or statistical facts,” he laughs.

“Aw, well I know you’ll eventually find someone that will appreciate you for who you are.”

 

\- - -

 

It’s nearly 7pm, both Julia and Reid finished their dish. The waitress comes overs, asking them, “how was your everything?”

“It was delicious,” Reid answers.

“Can I interest you in our dessert menu?”

“I’m fine, thanks though. What about you, Spencer?”

“I’m quite alright too.”

“Okay so are you two paying together or separate?”

“Separa-,” Julia responds but Reid interrupts her and tells that he’ll pay for it both.

“What no?! You don’t have to do that,” Julia tells him.

“No, it’s fine.”

“So,” the waitress asks.

“Just send me the bill.”

The waitress nods understandably, collecting their plates and retreats, coming back a few minutes later, delivering them their bill.  
When she leaves, Julia reaches for the bill looking at the total cost and she responds, “This is ridiculous! You shouldn’t have to pay for this.”

“No, it’s alright. I want to do do this,” he says as reaches into his satchel for his wallet.

“If you insist. Lunch is on me tomorrow then.”

“Okay,” he smiles, placing the money into the check presenter tray also an addition $2 as a tip for the waitress. “Shall we go?”

“Yeah, but I’ll meet you outside,” she tells him. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom before we leave.”

“I’ll see you outside then.”

 

\- - -

 

Reid and Julia are driving around the hotel to try and available parking near the hotel but there is none as expected in a busy area so their next option is to find a nearby garage where they can drop their vehicle off. They drive down Mission St, making a right turn on 3rd Street where they proceed to turn again, onto a small street which led them to a garage parking lot that Julia noticed earlier.

Reid drives into the garage and as he enters it he sees up ahead that there’s a boom gate. He stops next to it, rolling his window out to reach for the ticket machine and presses a button requesting a ticket. The machine spits a ticket out which he takes with him, putting it in a safe place and he watches ahead as the gate raises, continuing to drive ahead.  
It takes some time for Reid to find parking space but with Julia alongside him, she becomes some help and before they get a spot. He parks the car carefully and comes to a full complete stop with engines off. Julia is the first one to get out of the car, slamming the door shut behind her and the sound of it, echoes through the lot. Not long after, Reid joins her.  
The two follows the signs hanging on the ceiling that tells them where the elevators are. When they get arrive at there, Julia presses a button and they wait. “B2,” Reid reads a sign on the wall, making a note in his head of where the car is.

The elevator arrives, both getting in and Julia hits a button for the main level following that the close button.

They arrive at their stop, letting the other people go first before stepping out and the first thing they notice when they walk out is what seems to be a park and beside it is a Contemporary Jewish Museum which catches Julia’s attention, making her gush. “This looks like a really interesting place to go,” Julia says and Reid agrees with her.

Time ticks by and as much this intrigues both of them, they know that the rest of the team is waiting at the hotel for them. The two walk on a path for a few minutes, that eventually leads them to Market Street and they make a right turn, almost nearing the hotel.

Julia and Reid walks up to the hotel, a kind bellboy holds the door opens for them. She smiles at him, acknowledging him. As they make their way inside, they see the rest of the team already there. “Hey, look who it is!” Morgan shouts, the first person to notice them.

Reid awkwardly waves to Morgan. The two join them, and Morgan asks, “how was dinner?

“Fine,” Julia responds. “Where’d you guys go?”

“T.G.I Fridays,” Rossi answers sounding annoyed.

Shortly their arrive, Hotchner comes to meet them with their rooms. “We have to double up,” he tells them and not one of them seemed surprised. “We only got 2 rooms.”

“Two,” Morgan exclaimed.

“There was a mix up or something but anyways if you do prefer your own room, you can pay for it yourself.”

The idea of having your own room is nice but paying for it however, none of them wants to. “Dave and I will be share a room,” Hotchner explains, “and the rest of you will share one together. Your luggage is already delivered in your rooms.”

 

\- - -

 

The 4 agents exit the elevator before the older agents, heading into their rooms. Morgan has the keys to it and unlocks the door to it leading into a luxurious looking hotel room. In the room near the entrance there’s a small closet on the right and the left is the bathroom. As they walk further they see their 2 beds and the first thing they all think is who is bedding with who. “So?” Julia wonder, eyeing the bed. “Who’s sharing a bed with who?”

“Well, I’m not sleeping with Reid,” Morgan abruptly comments.

Both Seaver and Julia are confused however they ignore it, no questions asked. “I really don’t care who I share a bed with so it doesn’t matter to me” Julia tells them. “I’m going to go take a shower while you guys sort this out, if that’s cool.”

 

\- - -

 

Julia turns on the shower on and from inside the bathroom she can hear that her colleagues are talking about something but unable to make out what they are saying so she ignores it. She takes off her clothes and hits the shower, singing “Ziggy Stardust,” by David Bowie as she washes herself.

 

30 minutes later

 

Julia steps out of the bathroom in a Led Zeppelin band tshirt and plaid pants. She sees Reid sitting in a bed against the headboard who looks to be thinking about something while Seaver is looking at a file however she notices Julia coming out of the bathroom, and heads for it, and Morgan sits in the corner chair with his headphones on, reading a relatively large book.

“Who am I bedding with,” she asks Reid as she walks over to her bag, putting her dirty clothes in it and takes out another book.

“Me,” Reid answers.

“Oh.”

“You don’t have a problem with that do you?”

“No,” she responds and starts walking over to the bed, sitting next to Reid.

“What are you doing? Your hair is wet.”

“It’s not that wet anymore, why does it bother you?”

“Yes because you’re going to get the bed all wet now get off and blow dry your hair.”

“Well someone’s grouchy,” she says, leaving her book on the bed and gets off so she can blow dry her hair.

A curious Reid picks up the book and reads, “A Clash of the King,” by George R.R Martin. “Isn’t this the book series the tv show based on?”

“Yeah it is,” she answers as she gets her blow dryer from her bag. “You’ve seen the show?”

Julia plugs it into, starting it and the hair dryer starts making noise. “Nope, I heard about it because a couple guys were talking about it when I visited a comic book store one time,” Reid says. “Is it any good like the book, I mean. I’m not interested in the show.”

“Well both of them are good. Are you planning to read it?”

Reid shrugs. “I have the first book with me right now if you want to read it but with you, you can essentially finish it.”

Regardless if Reid wanted to read it or not, Julia stops blow drying her hair for a moment to grab her book from her bag so Reid can read it. She hands the book to him and immediately Reid reads the back of the book to see what it’s about. “It sounds interesting,” he comments.

“Are you going to read it,” Julia wonders, making her way back to the table yet there’s no response. “Spencer,” she asks and when she turns to look back, he’s reading the book.

 

1 hours later

 

Both the girls have taken the shower, it’s the boys turn and when Morgan finally finished taking his shower, he comes out with just a white towel around the waist making Julia groan, returning back to her book.

Reid notices and screeches, “Morgan,” turning away so he didn’t have to look at his abs any longer. “What are you doing? Put some clothes on before your towel falls off.”

Morgan rolls his eyes and ignores him. He eventually did put on some clothes which pleased everyone.

 

The next day

 

Everyone else lays asleep while Julia is the only one that is awake. She sits upright in bed staring at the window view. Next to her is Reid who’s sleeping soundlessly or at least Julia thought until he wakes up, noticing Julia. “What time is it,” he groggy asks, turning his head to look at the alarm clock and back. “It’s almost 2am, why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Can’t sleep,” she whispers.

“Why did you have a bad dream or something? I mean we all have them once and awhile.”

“I don’t feel tired, I guess.”

“Is something bothering you?”

“You’ve never asked why he died,” Julia says. “I mean don’t you want to know?”

“I was waiting until you were ready and is this about him, why you cannot sleep? Do you want to talk about him or something to feel better?”

“I miss him, I miss my old colleagues and seeing them. I miss being in New York.”

“You’re homesick. Come here.”

Even though they weren’t together anymore but they are friends, and friends help each other. Reid takes her into his arms as she rests her head onto his chest, slowly falling asleep and when she does, Reid feels comfortable sleeping.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to @caparogers on Twitter and @wolfpawn on Tumblr for helping me edit and a shoutout for @laura_markus for revising it.


End file.
